Chapter 98 First Snow: Birth is often accompanied by death, and death is often accompanied by rebirth…
She slept soundly through the night. When Le Jin opened her eyes, the view outside the window was gloomy, with cold light flowing with large clumps of condensed clouds. The air suddenly felt heavy with cold, and her nasal passages were cold and dry. She wrinkled her nose, tucking it under the covers.
"woke up?"
Yuanfang then changed out of the groom's wedding attire into a plain white, fitted robe, without any other decorations, completely different from yesterday's festive look.
He reached out and touched Le Jin's chin, rubbing it like he was petting a cat, then turned his hand over and rubbed it against her jaw, his tone gentle and sweet.
"It's almost evening now, should we continue sleeping or get up and eat something?"
Although their wedding was kept simple, weddings have always been tiring, especially after surviving a fire yesterday. Le Jin felt more exhausted than ever before and just wanted to sleep forever, since the bed was the warmest place to rest.
She rolled over inside the blanket and mumbled, "I still want to sleep."
Yuanfang's eyes curved into crescent moons, his undisguised joy radiating from them. He leaned down and kissed Le Jin's warm cheek. "Go to sleep. If you're hungry, just call Sheng San. I'm going out now, I'll be back tonight."
"where you go?"
Yuan Fang's smile suddenly froze, and the corners of his mouth twitched unnaturally. "The Meng family."
"The fire at Jude Winery last night burned everything to the ground. The people from the Jingzhao Prefecture dug people out of a pile of charred remains... They were barely recognizable as human, their flesh blackened and stuck to their bones. I heard that many people fainted on the spot. The corpses looked like ghosts."
As he spoke of the latter part, Yuan Fang's tone gradually softened, revealing a hint of reluctance.
He loathed Meng Shutai, thinking the man was a complete madman. But after all, he was a living, breathing person, and now that he was dead, he couldn't say he was happy.
As Yuanfang recounted Meng Shutai's death, Le Jin slowly opened her eyes, which had been closed.
What would a charred person look like? Probably like overcooked roasted meat, with skin and muscles atrophied, twisted, and carbonized, eventually turning into a black, unrecognizable mess.
What about the beautiful people? Even someone as beautiful as Meng Shutai eventually turned into what people call a "ghost"?
With her ear pressed against the pillow, Le Jin could hear her own heartbeat clearly, as if a vibrant, beating heart was resting under her head, thumping loudly.
She couldn't tell how she felt, and shamefully curled up under the covers.
The stab Meng Shutai gave her back then was something she had already repaid on the day of the Water Lantern Festival. Now that he's dead, their debt is finally settled.
But Le Jin suddenly felt that Meng Shutai should not have died in such an ugly way.
He was the most beautiful person Le Jin had ever seen. She naively believed that a beautiful person should have a different way of leaving, a way that matched his beauty, or at least not so hastily. This idealistic expectation inexplicably overlapped with her initial admiration for Meng Shutai.
After all, the grudges and affections are gone, so what's the point of arguing?
Yuanfang tucked her in and reminded her not to sleep too long, or she wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Just as he was about to get up and leave, his hand was suddenly grabbed.
"I want to go too, take me with you."
——
The carriage stopped in front of the Meng residence. As soon as Le Jin lifted the curtain, she was greeted by a vast expanse of white under the open sky.
The white silk fluttered in the evening breeze, like the soft weeping of a soul, lingering and unwilling to stop.
Inside the mourning hall, a square coffin lay closed in the center. Meng Cizhang, dressed in mourning clothes, knelt before the coffin, hearing someone approaching from behind.
Three pale yellow incense sticks were picked up with fingers, lit over a candle flame, and then placed into the incense burner with one hand.
Thank you.
"Thank me? General Pingyi is joking. Shouldn't I be thanking you for coming to see my brother?"
Xie Lianhui squatted down beside him, her expression calm. She smiled and said, "Of course I have to thank you. Thank you for taking the blame for Meng Shutai's death and for not implicating me."
Last night, the Prefect of the Capital sent someone to the Meng residence with a message, saying that military kerosene used in the fire had been found inside the fire site. If we follow this lead, we will surely be able to catch the mastermind behind it all.
The charred corpse that had been carried back was placed aside. Meng Cizhang's vision went black and he could no longer stand, but he forced himself to stop the officials as they left.
"No need."
“My brother has been mentally unstable for several years. This accident was caused by our Meng family’s negligence in supervising him, which led him to interrupt the Seventh Prince’s wedding. The fire was also an accident he caused. There is no murderer, so there is no need to investigate.”
Xie Lianhui looked Meng Cizhang up and down with great interest. "When we first met, I never realized that this pampered young man had such a ruthless streak?"
Meng Cizhang's blank gaze shifted slightly towards her, and he said expressionlessly, "People always have to grow up. Who can be a wealthy and idle person for a lifetime?"
Even so, Meng Cizhang once truly believed that he could live a carefree life under the protection of his elder brother and the Meng family. But the corpse on the tower still haunted his mind, and he knew better than anyone that his brother deserved to die.
During those seven years, his elder brother lived a life worse than death, and Meng Cizhang secretly believed that this was Heaven's punishment for Meng Shutai. He should atone for his own sins; that was fine.
When the creditor appeared, determined to personally reclaim the life the Meng family owed, Meng Cizhang understood that he had to do it.
"General Pingyi, let's consider the past between our two families to be wiped clean."
Meng Cizhang bowed to her, and Xie Lianhui raised an eyebrow, quite surprised by him.
"I thought you were letting me go because you were happy your brother was dead, but it turns out you just wanted to settle your score?"
Her voice suddenly rose, and she awkwardly touched her earlobe.
Meng Cizhang's eyes narrowed, and he asked suspiciously, "Happy? Your brother is dead, and you're happy?"
Xie Lianhui opened her mouth but made no sound. Then she smiled and patted Meng Cizhang on the shoulder: "There's a difference between being a younger sister and being a younger brother."
The younger brother can take over the older brother's business, but the younger sister cannot.
Xie Lianhui was initially devastated and on the verge of collapse, but when she realized that the constraints that had been weighing her down had disappeared, she suddenly touched upon another layer of meaning that her brother's death had for her.
Let's just call her cold-blooded, ruthless, and selfish. In Ganzhou, Xie Lianhui embraced her burning ambition.
She punched Meng Cizhang on the shoulder, her smile bright and unrestrained, and said in a way that Meng Cizhang didn't understand, with a serious tone, "Welcome to the truly free world."
After saying that, Xie Lianhui stood up briskly and was walking out of the mourning hall when she bumped into Le Jin and Yuan Fangsui.
She narrowed her eyes and said, "Greetings, Seventh Prince," but her gaze was fixed on Yue Jin.
A moment later, Xie Lianhui smiled at her and brushed past Le Jin. As she walked away, Le Jin heard her quietly sigh, "How pitiful."
What does that mean? Who is she saying is pitiful?
Le Jin didn't understand what it meant, but she didn't have time to think about it at the moment and went straight into the mourning hall.
The white inside the mourning hall was even more overwhelming than outside the mansion gate, as if snow had accumulated everywhere, and a single breath could freeze one's lungs.
She stood behind Meng Cizhang, unwilling to take another step.
"Please accept my condolences, Erlang."
Meng Cizhang slowly turned around and gave Le Jin a pale smile.
"Thank you for your concern, Miss Qingsi. Please accept my condolences..." He murmured these two words, his smile spreading but also becoming more powerless.
“My elder brother suffered a serious illness when he was young and almost died. Since then, everyone in the family has had a feeling that he wouldn’t survive. Look at this hastily arranged funeral, it was actually prepared for him back then and has been stored for so many years. It’s finally being used today. Things prepared in advance won’t be so sad.”
He explained it this way, but Le Jin felt as if her heart was being pierced. She herself didn't know where this pain came from. Her gaze gradually shifted to the coffin, and she only felt her limbs grow cold and stiff, a kind of desolation lingering in her heart.
Life and death are the beginning and the end of heaven and earth, connected one after the other.
Life is often accompanied by death, and death is often accompanied by new life.
A tremendous fate loomed over them, and Le Jin suddenly realized that everyone was so powerless, unable to escape the shackles of life and death.
Even someone as proud as Meng Shutai ended up lying in a coffin.
Le Jin's eyelashes fluttered, and she whispered, "Second Young Master, the eldest young master in the coffin is not a whole corpse."
"Um?"
"Come with me."
——
Meng Shutai's severed finger was buried by Le Jin in the maple forest next to Qiliyuan.
Meng Cizhang and Yuan Fang were both dumbfounded when they saw her dig out a small piece of something wrapped in red cloth under the tree.
Le Jin held the small corner of the red cloth in her fingertips and placed the item in Meng Cizhang's palm.
"My eldest son secretly sent this 'gift' before Fang Sui and I got married. Now that he is gone, let this severed finger return to him."
Le Jin recalled Meng Shutai's words in her ear, "You will always possess all of me," and suddenly smiled.
She didn't care; she'd rather return "all of him" to him.
“By the way, does Erlangjun know where Dalangjun’s ivory dagger is? I…” Le Jin was a little speechless, but still forced herself to continue: “I really like that dagger. Can I take another look? I’m afraid I won’t have the chance again.”
Taking a look is just a pretense; finding an opportunity to take it back is Le Jin's true intention.
Everything was returned to its rightful owner, and the two of them had no further connection.
“An ivory dagger…” Meng Cizhang held the severed finger, his brows furrowing. “I was wondering why my brother always carried that dagger with him, but we didn’t find it on his body. I ordered people to search his room, but it wasn’t there either. If it had fallen into the fire, the fire would have been extinguished long ago, and the people from the Jingzhao Prefecture should have been able to find it when they were cleaning up. But now the dagger is still missing, and I’m afraid we’ll have to disappoint Miss Qingsi.”
Upon hearing the news, Le Jin wasn't exactly disappointed; she simply didn't want any lingering feelings between herself and Meng Shutai. Since the dagger was gone, there was no point in dwelling on it.
Le Jin smiled and shook her head, "It's alright. Take good care of yourself, Erlangjun. Fang and I are heading back now."
She and Yuanfang left side by side. Meng Cizhang looked at the small red cloth cylinder stained with mud in his palm, and tears gradually welled up in his eyes.
From this day forward, he will be the only child in the Meng family.
Meng Cizhang walked back to the mourning hall step by step, letting the cold wind dry his tears. His skin under the tear stains was taut, and he could no longer feel the cold of the impending snow.
He stood beside the coffin, his eyes closed, not wanting to face the charred corpse, but the severed finger constantly reminded him that he should open the coffin and place the finger next to Meng Shutai.
Meng Cizhang sighed slowly, forcibly suppressing his inner fear, and ordered his men, "Open the coffin."
He placed the small red cloth beside the corpse inside the coffin, but before he could completely put it down, Meng Cizhang's gaze fell on the corpse's hand.
All five fingers are present.
Is it the other hand?
Looking past the corpse to the other side, Meng Cizhang felt a jolt.
That hand, too, had all five fingers.
——
When Xie Lianhui returned to the capital, she stayed at the Zhennan Prince's Mansion. As she dismounted and stepped through the gate, the servants on both sides bowed and addressed her as "Master".
Xie Lianhui gave a soft "hmm," her lips curving upwards involuntarily; she seemed quite pleased with the way she was addressed.
She went straight to a small courtyard in the mansion, pushed open the door, and saw a person sitting behind a screen.
"Oh."
Xie Lianhui was in a great mood. He hooked his toes on a stool and sat down casually, his tone full of schadenfreude.
"You came up with the idea of setting the fire yourself, and now you don't want to see anyone?"
Behind the screen, a beautiful, jade-like hand, missing its little finger, was holding an ivory dagger, pointing it at its own forearm, which was burned and mangled, considering whether to cut off the ugly, rotten flesh.
"I have survived a life-or-death ordeal in the sea of fire, my face was disfigured and my body burned. General Pingyi's hatred has been averted, so why bother with further mockery?"
Xie Lianhui craned her neck to look behind the screen, imagining the tragic scene of that beautiful, otherworldly woman being reduced to ashes, and she felt quite pleased with herself.
Although her brother's death was a good thing for her, Xie Lianhui still wanted to avenge him, having grown up together since childhood.
Unexpectedly, she met Meng Shutai on the street that day, and he himself made the arrangement to "burn down the wedding room".
Under the raging flames, Meng Shutai will never exist again. His "death" was a way of avenging those who died back then.
This man's words sounded nice, but Xie Lianhui wasn't easily fooled. Why would he want to "pay off a debt" by bringing trouble to someone else's wedding room? Had the young couple offended him? There was clearly something fishy going on.
The next day, Xie Lianhui found out what happened after Yuanfang returned to the capital.
"You gave up being a proper young master of the Meng family and ruined yourself like this. They've even set up your funeral and mourning hall over there. You can forget about ever going back in this life. You've lost so much, all for that Qing Si?"
Xie Lianhui shook her head and said again, "So pitiful."
That young woman was truly unlucky to be haunted by such an evil spirit.
Meng Shutai looked at his arm from left to right, and finally put down the dagger, deciding to keep the scar. He would save it for when he reunited with Le Jin, to comfort her and ease her heartache.
"Years ago, I helped you out by some strange coincidence. Now you've helped me out, isn't that perfect? Why are you saying anything more?"
Meng Shutai carefully sheathed the dagger and placed it at his waist.
A gust of cold wind blew in, and the small window opened. He got up and walked to the window. His white veil billowed up, clinging to his beautifully shaped jawline, and the reddish-brown burns on his cheeks were faintly visible beneath the veil.
He lightly touched the wound with his finger, his brows furrowing, and a deep sorrow settled in his beautiful eyes.
If Le Jin had been willing to be with him last night, he would have naturally taken her away before the fire started; but the girl was always beyond his control, so he could only "die" in front of her, erasing the past in the most violent way.
Start over with her.
Snowflakes are fluttering outside the window; it's snowing.
The first snow of the year in Luoyang.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Male ghosts aren't so easy to kill, are they? [Dog head with rose in hand]
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